English 11 Honors
Lima
Name: ________________________
Date/Block:__________________
Study Guide: Letter to the Rev. Samson Occom (Phyllis Wheatley)
1. According to Phillis Wheatley, religious freedom by itself is not enough to make a person free.
What other freedom does she say is necessary?
2. What reason does Wheatley give to explain why people are willing to allow slavery?
3. What "strange absurdity" does Wheatley refer to?
4.) What allusion does Wheatley make? Why is this allusion appropriate for her letter (consider
audience).
5.) Find an example of figurative language in Wheatley’s letter. What type of figurative language is
it? What is its effect?
6.) What is Wheatley’s attitude towards Occom? Slaveholders? Use evidence from the text.
7.) What does Wheatley think will be the fate of the slavery system? Why does she think that?
Study Guide: Letter to John Adams (Abigail Adams)
1.) Abigail Adams is very concerned about the safety of Boston. Explain why.
English 11 Honors
Lima
Name: ________________________
Date/Block:__________________
2.) What contrast does Adams point out between the goals of the Congress and the attitude of the
delegates toward their wives?
3.) Find an example of a metaphor within her letter to John Adams. What is its effect?
4.) Find an example of a simile in her letter. What is its effect?
5.) What is Adam’s attitude towards her husband and his work? Use eveidence from the text.
6.) What can you infer about Adams’s views on public issues? Consider: her description of the local
colonial government, her maxim (a general truth, fundamental principle, or rule of conduct; a
proverbial saying) about power and liberty, her maxim about people and a king, her comments
about women).
7). In what ways does Adams's life and the way she feels contrast with the life and feelings of her
husband? Support your ideas with details from the letter.
Compare and Contrast: (1-2 paragraphs)
1.) How similar are the purposes and Wheatley’s and Adams’s letters? Consider both the private
and public issues they address.
English 11 Honors
Lima
Name: ________________________
Date/Block:__________________
Study Guide: Lecture to a Missionary (Red Jacket)
1.) What is Red Jacket’s tone during his speech. Find textual support to back up your claim.
2.) What are Red Jacket’s reasons for not converting to Rev. Cram’s religion. List them. Which of
these reasons is the most persuasive to you? Why?
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3.) Based on Red Jacket’s speech, what can you infer about relations between Senecas and the
white settlers at that time. Why?
4.) What is your impression of Red Jacket as a leader? Why?
Short Answer:
1.) Compare Red Jacket’s speech to Rev. Cram with Patrick Henry’s speech to the delegates at the
Virginia Convention (p. 263). How are the topics of the two speeches alike, and how are they
different? Is Red Jacket’s attitude towards the white settles similar or different to Henry’s attitude
towards the British? Explain. Use textual evidence.